


Better

by stardustandswimmingpools



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Children, F/M, Fights, Hogwarts, It's not fluff, Marauders' Era, Transfiguration, but it's not angst because like, idk how to categorize this, idk how to explain that, impressive, it's not sad, they aren't friends yet here, they're in their third year, they're kids tho, wow i haven't rambled in the tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 21:12:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7817392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustandswimmingpools/pseuds/stardustandswimmingpools
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: “we argued so much during a class discussion that we both got kicked out and we’re still arguing outside of class” au with James and Lily as third year Hogwarts students</p>
            </blockquote>





	Better

**Author's Note:**

> Me and my friend @iwriteshakespeareanninsults on Tumblr (who is also my friend in real life) have been doing this thing where we exchange prompts we find on Tumblr and challenge the other person to write a fic from the prompt. A lot of writing has stemmed from this game and this fanfic is one of those so this is really all thanks to her. It's also the first time I've written Jily and I think it's the first time I've written Harry Potter at all so I hope you guys like it thanks!!!

“Class, we’ve been working for the past couple of weeks with simpler tasks, such as turning a teacup into a mouse and back again. I think it’s high time we move on to something a little bit more challenging,” Professor McGonagall said curtly as she entered the classroom. James straightened in his chair, eager to see what they would be learning to transfigure next. He’d always been pretty good at transfiguration, and McGonagall herself had grudgingly admitted that for a third year student, he was surprisingly proficient.

 

Lily didn’t straighten visibly, but her ears perked up. She was excited. They’d been working with those mundane teacups for two weeks now. She’d gotten so bored in one class that she’d made her mouse’s whiskers and tail longer, and when she was told to change it back into a teacup, the handle was too big for the cup. McGonagall had taken points from her for that, and she hadn’t wanted to argue that she just didn’t feel challenged enough.

 

McGonagall pulled out, from her cupboard, cages of birds. For some reason, though their mouths were opening and closing in a state of obvious panic, they weren’t omitting any sound. The professor must have putten some hex on them, and they didn’t seem happy. They weren’t big or scary, just robins and sparrows silently twittering around their metal enclosures. From the table beside her, Lily heard James whisper “Yes!” and high five Sirius. She rolled her eyes. Boys were so immature.

 

“Birds are a bit more challenging to work with than mice, because they have a different bone structure and they have wings,” McGonagall told the class as she set down the bird cages on her desk. All eyes were on the little creatures fluttering inside. Lily kept her focus on the professor. James was trying, but his eyes kept straying slightly. There was this one bird in the cage, a robin, and it was bright red. He thought it was really beautiful. “Your task is to turn your assigned bird into a candlestick. Not a pair of candlesticks — that’s much more advanced and more dangerous to the health of the bird. One brass candlestick is all you need to create. If you succeed in turning it into a candlestick and back again, you will receive full marks for the lesson.”

 

She opened the cage quickly and drew out a frightened-looking sparrow. Lily felt sorry for it. Holding it in the palm of her hand, McGonagall said, “Watch carefully in the way that I move my wand.”

 

She raised her wand, moved it through the air quickly here and there, and they all watched in awe as the bird changed into a candlestick. Murmurs rippled throughout the class. Lily began practicing the pattern in her mind.

 

“Watch again,” McGonagall said, and she tossed the shining candlestick into the air. A gasp drew from the mouths of the class, but as the professor moved her wand about, the candlestick changed into a bird mid-fall, and it began to flap its wings in a desperate attempt to free itself. McGonagall waved her wand once more, and the bird helplessly zoomed back into her hand.

 

“If you do it wrong, you could hurt the bird, so please be careful,” McGonagall warned. “If you think you’ll do it wrong, ask me to show you again. Better safe than sorry.”

 

“Now, everyone come up and take a bird —” there was a loud scraping of chairs as everyone stood and hustled to the front “— and please be careful with the cages!” the professor said loudly over the din. “Don’t open them too wide or the birds will escape!”

 

After everyone had gotten their bird and settled down, McGonagall began pacing around the class, weaving between chairs and tables to see the progress people had made. Lily was laser-focused. She waved her wand in the pattern she’d seen McGonagall do it. Nothing happened. Disappointed, she tried again. Still nothing.

 

She made the mistake of glancing over at James’s table and groaned. Of course, the know-it-all had already turned his bird into a gleaming candlestick and was boasting to his friends. He had probably cheated or something. God, she hated him.

 

James caught her looking and smirked. “How’s it goin’, Evans?”

 

“Shut up,” she muttered. She turned back to her bird and watched it hop around helplessly. “Me too, little guy,” she whispered to it.

 

“Hey, I could show you how it’s done if you want.” Lily jumped. James was now standing directly behind her, talking in her ear.

 

She turned away from him. “Right, because I’m sure you know.”

 

“You think I wasn’t paying attention?” James said indignantly.

 

Lily turned around in her seat, mentally preparing herself for this argument. “I think you cheated, because there’s no way anyone could transfigure a bird into a candlestick that quickly without any practice or prior knowledge.”

 

“Cheated? Evans, James Potter is a lot of things, but cheater is not one of them,” James shot back. “Call me what you want, but I say you’re just not good enough for this yet.”

 

“How dare you!”

 

“You heard me. But hey,” he added, in mock consolation. “It’s challenging. Not everyone can get it on the first try.”

 

“You shut up, you arrogant bastard,” Lily said angrily. “You think you’re so high and mighty because you can turn a bird into a candlestick? If I recall correctly, you almost  _ failed  _ the transfiguration test last year.”

 

“I was twelve!” James retorted.

 

“And we’re thirteen now. Just because you somehow picked this up faster than humanly possible — which I still don’t believe — doesn’t mean you’re better than me. I  _ passed  _ my tests with good scores,” Lily spat. “This is beginner’s luck and nothing more.”

 

James opened his mouth to respond when they both looked at the towering figure of Professor McGonagall. She looked extremely unhappy.

 

“Professor,” Lily said, swallowing.

 

“Professor,” James echoed.

 

The entire class was silent. McGonagall said sharply, “If you two are having such issues, perhaps you should resolve them without disrupting the class. Outside, both of you. And neither of you will receive marks for this class.” After a pause, she said, “Potter, you get low marks. Evans, none.”

 

“But —” Lily spluttered — how unfair! But McGonagall fixed her with a look.

 

“ _ Out _ ,” she said firmly. “You can resolve your differences in peace.”

 

She waved them off and continued her rounds.

 

Lily stormed to the door. She’d never been thrown out of class before. “See what you did,” she hissed as she opened it and slunk out into the empty hallway.

 

“What I did?!” James exclaimed. “None of that was me! That was all you insulting my ability to transfigure animals.”

 

“If you hadn’t come up behind me and distracted me, I would’ve had it and we wouldn’t be in this situation!” Lily countered.

 

“I was trying to be helpful!”

 

“By being an arrogant bag of dicks, yeah!”

 

“What’s with the name-calling?”

 

“I don’t believe that you actually did that on your own,” Lily stated, squaring her shoulders. “You cheated, and that’s that.”

 

“Hey, did it ever occur to you that maybe I’m actually good at something?” James said, his voice stinging.

 

“Yeah; you’re good at flying and you’re good at being selfish and vain.” Even as she said it, she wished she could take it back. She didn’t feel like she was arguing because she was right anymore; she felt like she was arguing for the sake of arguing.

 

“You know, I work to pass these classes too. Maybe I don’t virtually live in the goddamn library, and maybe I haven’t read every freakin’ book on every freakin’ topic, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care, and it sure as hell doesn’t mean I’m not good at it!” James snapped. “Don’t you go acting all high and mighty like you’re the only good one in the class. Not everyone is book smarts, Evans. Not everyone has the time.”

 

In fact, it didn’t even feel like he was attacking her anymore, just defending himself.

Lily sighed and bit back an angry response. Instead she leaned against the wall and grumbled, “Whatever.”

 

James waited a beat. “Whatever? That’s your witty response?”

 

“What do you want me to say?” Lily answered.

 

Good question. James pondered. “I want you to apologize for saying that I cheated just because I could turn that stupid bird into a candlestick.”

 

Lily took a deep breath. “James, I’m sorry for saying you cheated.”

 

“No, that’s forced, never mind.” He looked down at the ground and leaned against the opposite wall, and suddenly the silence around them was overwhelming. Where before angry talking had filled the air now sat a crushing quiet that they couldn’t seem to fill.

 

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Lily blurted out finally, for want of something better to say. James looked up.

 

“I don’t think you’re stupid and I don’t think you cheated, okay? God. I just got angry because you did it better and faster than me and then you offered to help when I could have gotten it if you had just kept your nose out and — the point is I’m sorry, okay?” The words rushed out of Lily’s mouth like they’d been brewing in her stomach and not made up on the spot.

Once she’d gotten it out, she slumped even further down the wall and looked down at her hands.

 

“Yeah, alright,” James sort of mumbled. “Sorry for distracting you and acting like I was better. You always do things better and you’re always the smart one and it just felt good to be better than you for once. Anyway I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s okay, I guess,” Lily said under her breath, loud enough for him to hear. She didn’t look up.

 

James tilted his head and examined the girl in front of him. Maybe the red robin had been so beautiful because it reminded him of Lily. She was something to behold — bright red hair, sparkling green eyes, skin that looked impossibly soft to touch, and a gentle smile that could hold the kindest or cruellest of words. In coming years, James would find himself victim to both.

 

For now, he just watched her, a feeling blossoming in his chest, somewhere around where his heart was.

  
And Lily didn’t know it yet, because it was buried under years of arguments and pettiness and fights and resistance, but the same feeling was making its way to the top of her heart too.

**Author's Note:**

> anyway thank ya for reading you can hmu on Tumblr [@vivilevone](http://vivilevone.tumblr.com) and Jeannie too bc she was the insp behind this [@iwriteshakespeareanninsults](http://iwriteshakespeareanninsults.tumblr.com) thanks guys


End file.
